The 99th anniversary of Marlin L. Hess’ birth was two days ago so I thought his marker would be appropriate for this week’s Tombstone Tuesday. Marlin was born in Shamokin, PA to George Hess and Carrie Alice Lynn. Marlin spent at least half of his life living in Shamokin before moving to Bristol, PA where he passed away. Marlin is buried at Sunset Memorial park in Feasterville-Trevose.

This will be a brief post as there is no obituary, no picture and no tombstone. George W Lynn was born to Harry Alfred Lynn and Clara Irene (McIntyre) Lynn on May 2, 1921. On October 3, 1921, young George died in Shamokin from Cholera Infantum. He is buried in Shamokin Cemetery with his parents though his grave does not contain a tombstone. Cousin George would have been 92 today had he lived.

Wilfred Haas was born to Wallace Henry Haas and Mabel (Jones) Haas on June 27, 1906 at 2649 North 5th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wilfred’s father was born in the United States while his mother was born in England (enter English into a line that I have spent 30-some years thinking was German-Austrian)

On December 26, 1927, Wilfred married Ruth Magdalene Wintrode. Wilfred and Ruth had five children, two sons and three daughters.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Wilfred continued to live in North Philly until 1942 when he and his family moved to Bensalem, Pennsylvania.

Wilfred died on April 30, 1990 (23 years ago today) and is buried in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania at Sunset Memorial Park block N, lot 799, grave 1. Stop buy to visit him and Ruth, there is a nice and peaceful view from their lot.

Catherine I. Nahodil was born in Shamokin, PA in 1915. The name of her parents have not been confirmed at this time but it is believed that she was the daughter of either Frederick or Julia Nahodil.

Catherine was raised by her grandparents, Rudolf and Rosamond Nahodil, and was listed as Rosamond’s adopted daughter in 1930. Rudolf passed away in 1929 and when Rosamond died in 1939, Catherine was still living at home.

The 1940 U. S. Federal Census shows that Rudolf and Rosamond’s daughter Julia (Nahodil) Snyder has now moved into the home that Rosamond and Catherine shared and Catherine is now listed as Julia’s daughter.

Catherine married William M. Johnson in 1940, after the census take recorded. Catherine and William had lived a block apart on Franklin Street for at least the previous five years.

The plastic marker show in the image above is all that marks the location of Catherine’s cremains.

Christmas day was especially exciting in 1880 for the Wetzel household as presents were not the only addition in the house this day. The Christmas birth of Weimer Jonas Wetzel was an exceptional present for Henry and Catherine (Kissinger) Wetzel and their four children. Weimer was born in the family’s Trevorton, Pennsylvania home.

Not only was Weimer’s birthday easy to remember but so was his wedding anniversary. On July 4, 1904 he married Iona Mary Conrad at Zion’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Trevorton. Iona Mary was born in Trevorton on March October 12, 1881 to parents Frank and Harriet (Miller) Conrad.

Through his life, Weimer was employed by Philadelphia and Reading Coal & Iron Company as a carpenter in the local colliery.

Weimer passed away on the morning of February 28, 1933 at the couple’s Coal Street home in Trevorton after battling sarcoma of the abdomen wall for the previous six months. The 80th anniversary of his death is in two days. Iona passed away in Sunbury on Christmas Eve of 1952. Weimer and Iona are buried together in Northumberland Memorial Park, Stonington.

Wilbert L. Strausser was born on April 23, 1902 to George and Minnie (Derk) Strausser. Almost nothing is known about Wilbert, including his place of birth which is likely Columbia or Northumberland County. The facts that are known are that he and his family lived in Coal Township in 1910, he died from Influenza on 14 October 1918, and he was laid to rest in Trevorton’s Greenwood Cemetery on 16 October 1918.

Wilbert spent 10 days fighting this deadly virus that wreaked havoc on the area and would claim the lives of more than 600,000 of his fellow Americans during 1918-1919.

My great grandfather, George H. Strausser, passed away on this date eighty-six years ago at the age of thirty-eight. Though he was able to witness the birth of his youngest child, my grandmother, he would not live to see her first birthday. What happened after his death is another story, or few stories. The only thing my grandmother knew about George was that he died in an unknown coal mine. II asked about his death during my entire youth but the story never changed and no slips were made…so there went my theory of a deep dark scandalous story.

For many years the only evidence of his existence was the 1900, 1910 and 1920 US Federal Census. The first breakthrough came a couple years ago with the discovery of the Coal Mining Accident Registers database made available by the Pennsylvania State Archives. Page 29 told me what happened, where it happened, and that it was “unavoidable”. Accident Cause or Remarks…”fall coal blocking timber gangway”.

2012 was the year of breakthroughs in my search for George. Last February I made the trip to the PA State Archives in Harrisburg hoping to get a copy of George’s death certificate. So now I knew that my great grandpa died from a fractured skull but more importantly the certificate told me where he was buried.

George H. Strausser22 Jan 1889 – 10 Feb 1927

Now you know this crazy obsessed genealogist wasn’t about to wait for warm spring weather to go track down his grave. The next day I made the three hour trip to Odd Fellows Cemetery in Coal Township with no real plan but a willingness to search. About an hour after arriving I was standing over his marker feeling like I had been there before. Sure enough, I had found this grave back in 2007 amongst a large Strausser lot but wasn’t certain which of the half dozen or so George Straussers this was.

George H. Strausser (ca 1925)

Among pictures that were passed on to me and some that were loaned to me for scanning were three pictures of George Strausser.

This year I met a cousin a few times removed (who is more than twice my age and was close to my great grandmother) that had been recording his family tree and stories about the people for many years and he just happened to have one story that involved George. “George came home from work on a pay day. Bid was supposed have taken his pay. She wouldn’t give it to George. George went to the outside toilet and Bid told him he must have lost his money in the toilet. He got a flashlight and went looking for it in the toilet. – By Royal”. Bid was George’s wife Mae, whose real name was Ada Mae. This is the only story I have about my great grandpop and I can’t help but find the irony and humor in that it involves another of my obsessions…outhouses. I am hoping to share more about George in future posts.